title: Validity and reliability of the modified John Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool for elderly patients in home health care.
abstract: This prospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the modified Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool (mJH-FRAT) among elderly patients receiving home health care visits. Out of 107 patients, 33 (30.8%) had one or more falls and seven (6.5%) experienced falls with injury. Receiver Operating Characteristics of the tool in predicting falls showed an Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.66 (p = 0.011) with sensitivity and specificity of 72.5% and 52.2% at the cutoff score of 14. For predicting falls with injury, the AUC was 0.82 (p = 0.016) with sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 65.9% at the cutoff score of 17. Inter-rater reliability of the tool was 85.7% agreement with Cohen's kappa of 0.714 (p < 0.001). The mJH-FRAT is a simple and easy-to-use multi-factor fall risk assessment tool with promising sensitivity, specificity and inter-rater reliability for prospectively identifying patients at risk of falls with injury among community-dwelling elderly populations.
authors.affiliation: Scripps Home Healthcare, 9619 Chesapeake Dr., Suite 300, San Diego, CA 92123, USA. Electronic address: shnizdo6623@pointloma.edu.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hnizdo
authors.forename: Raquel A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Archuleta
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Son Chae
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015142:Baltimore; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Fall risk assessment tool; Home health; Sensitivity; Specificity